Editorial Board Guest Author

Mr. Weaver

Shane Weaver

Director of Strategy, MaxMedia

Shane Weaver is the Director of Strategy at MaxMedia, an experience design agency that has been operating in Atlanta for more than 20 years. MaxMedia’ success is driven by its core focus of addressing business challenges through problem solving for their end users. Mr. Weaver plays an important role in delivering human-centric solutions to these clients. With more than 15 years in the marketing space working with brands such as IHG, Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide, Mr. Weaver has mastered the art and science of helping brands find their true voice in a crowded market place that is oversaturated with flat product promises, forced offerings and friction-packed experiences. Mr. Weaver’s role is to help companies sort their way through these challenges. His passion resides in working with companies to focus on their relevance, emotional resonance and brand authenticity; and to best position them for positive change in today’s noisy and competitive business environments. To that end, Mr. Weaver has deep experience guiding cross-functional teams to address client needs across a breadth of brands including The Home Depot, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Sony and Disney. Prior to joining MaxMedia, Mr. Weaver worked as an experience design consultant where he worked with Fortune 100 brands to help guide them in building frictionless customer experiences that aligned with business goals, market trends and societal change. His previous roles included Senior Manager, Digital Strategy and Insights at consultative design firm Sparks Grove, where he spent nearly four years as a strategy lead for highly collaborative teams to produce and deliver products, campaigns and experiences for Fortune 500 companies. Please visit http://www.maxmedia.com for more information.

Author's Articles

Guest Service: Empowering People

Excellent customer service is vitally important in all businesses but it is especially important for hotels where customer service is the lifeblood of the business. Outstanding customer service is essential in creating new customers, retaining existing customers, and cultivating referrals for future customers. Employees who meet and exceed guest expectations are critical to a hotel's success, and it begins with the hiring process. It is imperative for HR personnel to screen for and hire people who inherently possess customer-friendly traits - empathy, warmth and conscientiousness - which allow them to serve guests naturally and authentically. Trait-based hiring means considering more than just a candidate's technical skills and background; it means looking for and selecting employees who naturally desire to take care of people, who derive satisfaction and pleasure from fulfilling guests' needs, and who don't consider customer service to be a chore. Without the presence of these specific traits and attributes, it is difficult for an employee to provide genuine hospitality. Once that kind of employee has been hired, it is necessary to empower them. Some forward-thinking hotels empower their employees to proactively fix customer problems without having to wait for management approval. This employee empowerment—the permission to be creative, and even having the authority to spend money on a customer's behalf - is a resourceful way to resolve guest problems quickly and efficiently. When management places their faith in an employee's good judgment, it inspires a sense of trust and provides a sense of higher purpose beyond a simple paycheck. The April issue of the Hotel Business Review will document what some leading hotels are doing to cultivate and manage guest satisfaction in their operations.